CNN
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The videos of a California senator being taken down by federal agents or of a New York mayoral candidate dragged out of immigration court energize liberal voters who want their leaders doing more to confront President Donald Trump’s administration.
But they’ve also highlighted the party’s divide since Trump returned to the White House between those looking for a fight and those worried fighting plays into Republican hands.
“Just because you’re confrontational doesn’t mean that you are going to get results,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat who represents parts of South Texas that have sharply shifted toward Republicans.
Cuellar was hesitant to criticize Democratic colleagues and maintains every Democrat should do what they think is best to satisfy the needs of their specific constituency. But he told CNN he would personally use a different approach.
“You got to have situational awareness,” he said about dealing with law enforcement. “In other words: Read the room.”
Several of the officials who were detained told CNN they were not intentionally trying to engage in civil disobedience, disobeying certain laws or commands of a government nonviolently as a form of protest. But their protests resonated with Trump supporters and critics alike at a time when the president has vowed a crackdown on protests in response to his immigration enforcement policies.
“All you have to do is show up places and say something different than what they want to hear, and you can find yourself arrested,” said Ras Baraka, the Newark mayor who was arrested during a protest of an immigration detention center in his city.
When CNN interviewed 35-year-old Bobbi Erickson in March in her rural Pennsylvania town, she was fed up with Democrats in Washington. A passionate organizer in a conservative part of her state, Erickson has worked for years to push her neighbors to vote for Democrats.
As she sees images of elected leaders getting detained or arrested, she’s both concerned about the government’s overreach and happy to see lawmakers getting in the arena. In her view, there needs to be more direct action despite concerns from moderate Democrats about the potential liability.
Maine Rep. Jared Golden, who represents a rural district Trump carried by nearly 10 points in 2024, criticized his fellow Democrats over the incidents. “I think that it’s never good when a senator or member of Congress gets roughed up by law enforcement,” he told Axios. “I don’t think politics as theater is what our job is here.”
Erickson has a different point of view.
“The people who are standing up to what we’re witnessing and putting their foot down are American heroes, and history will look fondly upon their actions,” she said recently.
This is what she envisioned when she previously expressed a desire for elected Democrats to step up.
“We need everybody putting the full weight of everything they can do against the authoritarian breakthrough that we’re currently experiencing,” she added.
Among the arrests so far: New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander was arrested at Manhattan’s immigration court last week escorting an asylum seeker as they exited their court appointment. Sen. Alex Padilla of California was forcefully removed from a news conference in Los Angeles this month and taken to the ground after attempting to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem a question. And Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey was indicted this month on federal charges alleging she impeded and interfered with immigration officers outside the same New Jersey detention center.
Baraka told CNN he wasn’t intending to get arrested. He doesn’t think being detained, as he was, is necessary, but argues there needs to be more intentional pushback to the Trump agenda from Democrats.
“I think a fight can make them understand we should not always be following polls. Leaders will sometimes impact polls. I think that’s important for Democrats to understand. It’s not just about them winning their position over and over again. It’s about them making this country live up to the things that we all value,” said Baraka, who finished second in this month’s Democratic primary for New Jersey governor. “Democrats have to pick the fights that are right, not the ones that are convenient.”
But the Department of Homeland Security has been sharing images of the arrests too, aiming to paint Democrats as siding with undocumented immigrants over American citizens.
DHS officials have also reposted critiques on social media from people who ordinarily support Democrats, including one video of ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith criticizing Padilla for trying to confront Noem during a news conference.
The National Republican Congressional Committee, the political arm of House Republicans, has been sending emails with subject lines that include “ICE Riots Backfire on Dems,” “The party of lawlessness” and “House Democrats will defend criminal illegal immigrants until the end of time.”
“They’re the ones kind of inviting themselves into this court of immigration,” said Mike Marinella, the group’s national press secretary, who firmly believes immigration is a winning issue for Republicans and why they prevailed in the 2024 election.
“The more they talk about it, the more we get to capitalize on it,” he said.
Veteran Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha, who spends a significant amount of time talking to Latino voters and swing voters in congressional districts across the country, says a little backbone is what the Democratic Party needs in this moment.
“No matter what we do, they’re going to constantly say we’re doing something that we’re not,” Rocha said of the attacks from Republicans. “I’ll take a little bit of a political risk to getting a bigger gain of actually showing we’re fighting for something, which I think a lot of times my party is scared to do.”
CNN’s Gloria Pazmino and Karina Tsui contributed to this report.
